To the motion. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I support the motion. I think that at least it leaves the door open to the option of making further changes, improvements, to Cabinet's plan. This is a made-by-Cabinet approach. There are no details. It will be the next Minister of Finance who determines what the details are, in terms of rebates, grants, how the money is spent, and so on. All of that is going to be set out in regulation that none of us may have any say in, not even the public. I am fine with leaving the door open to the chance to develop a better plan.
We have talked about what has been done in the Yukon with rebates to First Nation governments, to municipal governments; revenue sharing with First Nation governments, with municipal governments; an ability to have a more flexible rebate system for individuals, so that those in rural and remote communities get more back. We could have designed that kind of a system. Unfortunately, that is not what we are getting.
I am in favour of pushing back this date in the hopes that we can actually design a better system, because Cabinet did not give us any options. Cabinet did not work with the committee to develop any options, any different kinds of scenarios. In fact, they just went off and negotiated whatever they wanted with the federal government, and they did that while this was even before the committee. I am all in favour of pushing this back in the hopes that we can design a better system that actually meets the needs of Northerners, because Cabinet's plan does not. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I request a recorded vote. Thank you.
The Member for Kam Lake, the Member for Frame Lake, the Member for Yellowknife Centre, the Member for Deh Cho, the Member for Yellowknife North.
All those opposed, please rise.
The Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, the Member for Nahendeh, the Member for Nunakput, the Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, the Member for Range Lake, the Member for Great Slave, the Member for Yellowknife South, the Member for Twin Lakes, the Member for Hay River South, the Member for Thebacha, the Member for Mackenzie Delta, the Member for Sahtu.
All those abstaining, please rise. The results of the recorded vote are: five in favour, 12 opposed, zero abstentions.
---Defeated
Clause 22. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. To the schedule. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a motion that Bill 42 be amended by deleting the schedule set out in the appendix to the bill and substituting the schedule attached to the motion.
Thank you, Minister. There is a motion on the floor. The motion is in order and is being distributed. I will wait until all Members receive a copy of the motion. The motion has been distributed. To the motion. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This motion is to replace the schedule in Bill 42 to change the date when the carbon tax comes into effect to September 1, 2019, and ensure that the per-unit volumes for natural gas are accurate by changing "litre" to "cubic metre." Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We were not given notice of this in advance. There are some differences from the one that was forwarded originally. I realize that we voted on this, but I want to register an objection that we are given motions on the floor with only seconds to consider them when we are talking about matters of great importance to the people of the Northwest Territories. I reject the Minister's methodology here. He needs to work collaboratively. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Your objection will be noted on the record. I will now call the bill number and title. Bill 42: An Act to Amend the Petroleum Products Tax Act. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. To the bill as a whole, does committee agree that Bill 42: An Act to Amend the Petroleum Products Tax Act as amended is now ready for third reading?
Agreed.
Can I see a show of hands on if committee agrees? Thank you, committee. Bill 42 as amended is now ready for third reading. Does committee agree this concludes our consideration of Bill 42?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. This concludes our consideration of Bill 42. Thank you to the witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms may escort the witnesses from the Chamber. Committee, I am going to call for a brief recess.
---SHORT RECESS
I will call committee back to order. Committee, we have agreed to next consider Bill 43, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act. I will turn to the Minister responsible for the bill to introduce it. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here to present Bill 43. This, along with Bill 42, is a critical piece of legislation that will allow the Government of the Northwest Territories to meet its carbon pricing commitment under the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change through a carbon tax on all petroleum and natural gas fuels except aviation fuel. The purpose of Bill 43 is to amend the Income Tax Act to partly offset the impact of the carbon tax by providing residents a cost-of-living offset benefit. Bill 43 also includes some administrative changes to non-refundable tax credits claimed by multi-jurisdictional individual tax filers to align with other jurisdictions.
I will not repeat my comments from Bill 42 earlier. However, the changes proposed to the Income Tax Act are obviously a critical piece of our overall plan for mitigating the impact of the NWT carbon tax as it creates the cost-of-living offset benefit. That concludes my opening remarks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. I will just note for all of committee that discussions on the carbon tax, which are found in Bill 42, are off-limits for this bill, as that is not the bill that is before us. That has been previously discussed by the House, so, despite the fact that the Minister discussed it in his opening remarks, that is not on the table for discussion. I just want to point that out right off the bat so that we can get through the actual business at hand here.
I will turn to the chair of the standing committee that reviewed the bill for any opening comments he may have. Mr. Vanthuyne. My mistake. There are a lot of bills before us. That would be a different committee. What I am going to do is ask the Minister to take his seat, and I will ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the witnesses into the Chamber. [Microphone turned off] ...just to comment who is or is not in the Assembly, I will just point that out. As I stated in my comments earlier this week, we have a level of decorum that we like to maintain here, and I know it's near the end of the Assembly and maybe we are all sick of each other, but let's keep it civil here for the last few days of this Assembly. Minister McLeod, will you please introduce your witnesses for the record.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I totally agree with you. To my right, I have Mr. David Stewart, who is the deputy minister of Finance. To my left, I have Cherie Jarock, who is our legislative counsel. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome back to the witnesses. I will now open up the floor to general comments on Bill 43 and only Bill 43. Comments from committee? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I do support this bill because it does three things. It provides that pension credits can only be claimed in the Northwest Territories by Northwest Territories residents. It also allows a pension and dividend credits to be claimed by NWT residents with business income earned outside of the Northwest Territories. So I support it because it will help accomplish those things, and I think those have a clear public purpose. The other thing that it does provide is a mechanism for a cost-of-living offset benefit related to something that shall not be named, so I do support this. I do have some difficulty with it in that the actual benefit in the cost-of-living offset will be set by the future Minister, by regulation, without any public input, necessarily, or even input from this side of the House, so part of a bigger plan. I had preferred that there would have been more input from committee and Regular MLAs in designing that plan, but that is not the case. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Further general comments. Seeing none, does committee agree that we move into the detail and consider each clause?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will proceed to a clause-by-clause review of the bill, deferring the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. There are eight clauses, or, rather, there are five clauses in this bill. Please turn to page 1. I will call out each clause individually.
---Clauses 1 through 3 inclusive approved
Clause 4. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a motion. I move that clause 4 of Bill 43 be amended in proposed subclause 3.5(3) by striking out "if, in relation" and substituting "subject to section 3.6, if, in relation." Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. There is a motion on the floor. It is being distributed. The motion has been distributed. To the motion. Minister McLeod.
Thank you. Just very quickly, Mr. Chair, the amendment in subclause 3.5(3) is to link the two interim payments that will described in my next motion, option to the annual cost of living offset calculation. The Canada Revenue Agency is unable to administer the cost-of-living offset benefit until July 2020 but has offered to provide interim benefits for the first year of the carbon tax under a separate program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Clause 4. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that clause 4 of Bill 43 be amended in proposed paragraph 3.5(6)(b) by striking out (c) and substituting (d). Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. There is a motion on the floor. The motion is being distributed. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed?
---Carried.
Clause 4, Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that clause 4 of Bill 43 be amended by adding the following after proposed clause 3.5:
3.6.(1) In this section,
"first offset year" means the period that begins on July 1, 2019, and ends on June 30, 2020;
"initial offset amount" of a taxpayer means an amount that the taxpayer is deemed to have paid under subsection 3.5(3) during October or April in the first offset year.
(2) For the purpose of subsection 3.5, in the first offset year, the months specified for a taxation year are October and April.
(3) For the purpose of calculating the initial offset amount, the percentage "25 percent" in subsection 3.5(3) is to be read as "50 percent."
(4) A determination by the Minister as to whether an individual is deemed to have paid an initial offset amount in the amount, if any, of the deemed payment is final and not subject to review or appeal.
(5) No portion of an initial offset amount is to be
(a) charged or given as security;
(b) garnished or attached;
(c) subject to execution or seizure; or
(d) retained by the Minister and applied to reduce any debt owing to the Government of the Northwest Territories or the Crown in Right of Canada.
(6) Notwithstanding this section and section 3.5, the Minister --
Mr. Chair, I withdraw the motion.
Thank you, Minister. Clause 4, as amended. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
